\u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was darkness, the tang of decay and breathing, rasping and loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d Petr shuffled forward, arms outstretched, almost blind.<\/p>\n
\u201cA doctor?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere to end your suffering,\u201d Petr said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course!\u201d It chuckled \u2013 dry, humourless and knowing. \u201cAfter all these years?\u201d<\/p>\n
Petr took a more confident step, his eyes growing accustomed to the gloom. The old man was grey-faced and so wasted that his body barely showed beneath the yellowed sheets.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Allepa!\u201d Petr raised his pistol.<\/p>\n
A flash. Claws? Steel? Petr never knew. Blood gouted.<\/p>\n
The old man pulled Petr to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel better already.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d There was darkness, the tang of decay and breathing, rasping and loud. \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d Petr shuffled forward, arms outstretched, almost blind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[42,92,46,35],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-hU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}